St. Louis Jr. Blues (14-4-0-0, 28 pts) vs. Chicago Bulldogs (0-16-0-0, 0 pts)
VENUE: Canlan Ice Sports, Romeoville, Ill.
GAME TIMES: November 19 at 5:30 PM, November 20 at 12:00 PM (all times Central)
WHERE TO FOLLOW: All Jr. Blues games are streamed live on HockeyTV.com (subscription required). On Twitter, follow @JrBluesGameday for live updates.
WHO’S HOT FOR THE JR. BLUES: Sam Maddox (St. Louis, Mo.) had one goal and one assist in last weekend’s split with Peoria, but his goal was arguably the most important one of the weekend, as it won Saturday’s game in overtime.
TENDER TRACKER: Defenseman Trevor Wilhelm (St. Louis, Mo.) became the first Jr. Blues player to sign an NAHL tender this season when he put pen to paper with the Corpus Christi IceRays. Wilhelm currently has six goals and seven assists, with a plus/minus rating of +3. Read all about his tender here and here.
SWEET HOME CHICAGO: This will be a homecoming weekend for five Jr. Blues players from Chicagoland: Jack Hatton is from Naperville, Joe Papa is a St. Charles native, Logan Fennema hails from La Grange, Joe Nolan from Arlington Heights, and Tom Yurisich is originally from Batavia.
TRANSACTION NEWS: This week, the Jr. Blues acquired goaltender Sawyer Schmidt from the Rochester Ice Hawks, in exchange for defenseman Joe Puglise. A 6’1”, 195lb full-right goalie originally from Mandan, N.D., Schmidt carried much of the load between the pipes for the Ice Hawks during his time in Minnesota. Schmidt has been allocated squad number 33.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: It was a busy off-season for the Bulldogs: they were acquired by the ownership group of the NAHL’s Minnesota Magicians, changed their logo, and a new coach was installed in Craig Shephard. However, the Bulldogs are still hunting for their first win of the 2016-17 campaign.
JUNIOR NOTES: The last time the Jr. Blues visited the Canlan Ice Sports complex in Romeoville, it was for the 2016 NA3HL Silver Cup Finals, where they bowed out in the group stage with a 1-2 record: Canlan will again be the host for this year’s finals series, scheduled for late March 2017.
